A Soldier's Dilemma
by Covert Weapon
Summary: No propaganda is perfect. Some people will start to question it. Some of those will slip past the illusion to find the harsh truth. What they do then is their choice. Was a oneshot, not anymore. HIATUS.


Author's note: I'm basically writing this oneshot so that I can get back into the habit of writing. Things have been a bit busy around here, and I'm hoping this will get me back on track. What I'm trying to say is, it might suck, and it might not. Please tell me either way!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I do however own Durok. You can only use him if you ask, or you mention me somehow (and then give me a heads up).

Note: This is normal talk.

_These are thoughts._

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A Soldier's Dilemma

_Why am I here? To serve the Fire Nation. But Why? Because the Fire Lord said so. But why did the Fire Lord say so? To protect the Fire Nation. To protect the Fire Nation from what? To protect it from the Earth Kingdom. Why would we need to protect ourselves from the Earth Kingdom?_

Durok was a Fire Nation Soldier. He had been since he first came of age to be so. His father was the same, as well as his father's father. Each male in his family had eventually given his life for the Fire Lord, the most honorable thing a member of the Fire Nation could do. As a fire bender, he should be happy with his life. And he was, at first. The challenge of combat, the constant training, the rush of life threatening situations, all of it practically intoxicated him. Just the feeling that he was preparing to protect his family at home filled him with a sense of pride.

And then he was shipped out.

His squadron was sent out on what the other troops called "collection duty". Basically, they went out to the countryside and took over small Earth Kingdom villages. At first, he told himself that these were important strategic victories, that these were soldier outposts. But slowly, over time, he realized that the towns never had that many defenders, and some towns were burned without any reason he could see. Sometimes they weren't met with any resistance at all, and all they had to do was march in and declare Fire Nation rule. This normally would have been fine for Durok, but he never missed the frightened way mothers hid their children each time.

He felt like a monster. No, worse, a drone doing absolutely nothing important, scaring young children and innocent mothers.

To try and soothe his feelings, he would use his off time to try and show them that he wasn't scary, he was just protecting them from the earth bender's oppression. But each time, the family he tried to talk to showed nothing but love for their earth bending relations. Even the stories of the Earth Nation attacking the Fire Nation first were refuted outright. He told himself that that was just propaganda on behalf of the Earth Kingdom. But when he heard the exact same story in the one Water Tribe village they captured, he began to be troubled. And that's when those thoughts began entering his head.

He began to doubt the whole reason he was here. If the Fire Nation stopped fighting, if he stopped fighting, would the Earth Kingdom really try to take over the Fire Nation? Somehow, he doubted it. These people were just to peace loving to be anything but defensive. So who was in the wrong, the Fire Nation, or the Earth Kingdom? Him, or the villages he helped pillage? He hadn't found out yet.

_Or maybe you don't want to find out._

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A small group, including him, had been sent out into the forest at the base of the mountains. Evidently, someone had been careless, and some villagers from the town they had just conquered, no, pillaged, had escaped. They were to find as many as they could, and either bring them back, or kill them. He had heard the commander's actual orders however. Usually, the Commander told the Squadron Leaders, and they told the soldiers. He had been right outside the door, about to deliver a message, when he heard the Commander issuing the orders. He had said, "Bring back any who looked worth our time, and kill the rest." The way he said it left feeling sick, trying to clear his mind of what the commander had meant by "worth our time". He quickly backtracked and came running back, pretending he had run the whole way. He had to make sure they didn't think he had heard anything.

When the official orders had come through, he had immediately volunteered. Some of his comrades looked a little surprised, as he never did something like this willingly. However, his leader looked happy, and let him come.

While searching alone, he started thinking those thoughts again.

_Are these people really that bad? What would Father think if he knew what I was doing right now? Hunting down innocents can't be honorable. What if…_

His thoughts were interrupted by a large sound of rocks falling. His head quickly snapped toward the direction of the loud sound. _It might just be an animal,_ he thought. His hopes were quickly dashed as he neared the sight of the small landslide. There, near the edge of the calamity, was a young girl, probably about 11, with her legs trapped under some large rocks. She didn't notice his approach, trying frantically to get free. As he watched closer, he noticed some of the smaller rocks grudgingly move away from her hands, even though she didn't touch them. _So she's an earth bender, if a little inexperienced._ She finally noticed his approach, and with a squeak of terror, she doubled her efforts.

Coming to a decision, he took off his mask, saying, "It's OK, I'm not going to hurt you." She looked up at him with startlingly blue eyes, full of confusion, fear, and innocence.

"Why not?"

He sighed. Slowly, he kneeled down and started to help her remove the rocks pinning her down. As soon as she was free, she tried to stand up. When she failed, he helped her. That's when he heard a voice that chilled his bones.

"You know, you never answered her question, and I would really like to hear the answer."

Durok slowly put the girl down, stood up, and turned to face the speaker.

It was the Commander.

"She's just a little girl, sir."

The Commander smiled a small smile, one that chilled Durok's very soul.

"And she's of no use to us whatsoever. When you saw her, you should have killed her right then. Now, I repeat her question. Why not?"

Right then something awoke in Durok's deepest mind. Something he had never felt before. He had always been praised as being the one in his class with the most control over his fire, but right now he could feel small trickles of flame flaring around his hands. The Commander didn't seem to notice. There was a rage inside him so strong he couldn't even speak.

"Maybe you were just making sure you got a clean shot. If you kill her right now, I'm willing to look this over. No one else will know of it, as I'm alone. Just kill her right now, and everything will be fine. Please don't turn out to be as much of a failure as your father and grandfather."

Throughout the Commander's speech, Durok's rage just kept building. At that last sentence, however, he just went cold. What was the Commander talking about?

"My father and grandfather died honorably in battle." he barely made out.

"And so will you, if you don't kill that girl right now."

Throughout this entire conversation, the girl had been looking back and forth at the two Fire Nation soldiers, her fear and pain paralyzing her. Durok looked down at her. So innocent. So fragile. He looked down at his hands, which were now covered in flames. He looked back up at the Commander.

"If I die, so be it. But if it saves one innocent life, I will die happy and honorably." And with this, he stood protectively in front of the little girl. Then he grinned. "Besides, I have one thing my father and his father didn't. I am a FIRE BENDER!" With those last words, his hands burst into a larger flame than before, his eyes glinting from more than the reflection.

"As you say, so be it."

And with that, Durok and the Commander launched into battle. The Commander started with a flurry of fireblasts. Durok quickly blasted them aside, protecting the girl as much as he could. He then retaliated with firebolts from his hands and feet. The Commander avoided them all, flipping up into the trees. Durok fired at him, but he dodged to another limb, jumping like a monkey. He continued to do this, Durok screaming, "Get back, you coward!" _Maybe if we can keep doing this, I can lead him away from the girl…_His hopes were soon dashed as he started to recognize his surroundings. _Oh, no!_ But before he could do anything, the Commander was standing behind the girl, holding her up by the hair. Seeing her very obvious pain, Durok stumbled, yelling, "Please, no, I'll do anything, just don't hurt her!" Then the fury returned, and he said quietly, just barely loud enough that the Commander could hear "As soon as you blast her, I'll blast you. You know I'm fast enough to do it so that you won't have time to block right after you kill her." The Commander froze. It was a stalemate.

The Commander looked around. Durok was in the direction of the town, but he had control of the girl. If he blasted her, he would die. If he didn't, there always was the chance he would anyway, if not by Durok, then by his superiors. They didn't like failure, especially Admiral Zhao. Either way, he would die.

Suddenly, he got an evil look in his eyes. Durok froze. He looked insane, like a cornered animal, but with a strange look of triumph in his face. The Commanders next words chilled him to the bone.

"If I'm going to die, then I'm taking this trash with me!"

Time seemed to slow down as the Commander raised his hand to strike. Durok started to run, but he knew it was too late. But right before the Commander could strike, he was suddenly flying to the side, losing his grip on the girl. Durok ran over to the girl to see if she was alright, and then he quickly looked over at the Commander. What he saw completely surprised him. Behind the Commander, wearing the garb of a member of the Water Tribe, was a teenage boy holding a sharp boomerang to the Commander's throat. Behind him, he heard a strange voice.

"It's OK, you're fine now."

Durok turned around, amazed to see a young-looking boy holding a staff, and a teenage girl also wearing the garb of the Water Tribe. On a closer look, he noticed the boy with the staff had air bender tattoos. But that was impossible. All the air benders were dead. Except hadn't he heard something about a boy with air bender tattoos recently?

His thoughts were interrupted by a whimper by the girl by his side.

"Quick! This girl needs help!"

The boy with the staff nodded quickly, motioning for the girl to help him. Between them, they carried the girl into a nearby clearing.

"Where are we…"

Durok stopped midsentence when he saw the huge beast in the middle of the clearing. The boy smiled.

"Don't worry, Appa's perfectly safe." Right then, a flying lemur landed on his head chittering. The boy laughed. "And neither will Momo."

Carefully, they loaded the girl onto Appa, and then went back to the other boy. Durok was surprised to see the Commander knocked out. The boy from the water tribe spoke for the first time.

"He wouldn't shut up, so I got bored and whacked him on the head. By the way, how do we know we can trust you?"

The last part was directed at Durok. Durok responded by bowing and removing his helmet entirely, saying,

"You saved my life, and my life is now forfeit to you three. You may kill me if you wish, but please, save the girl."

The Water Tribe boy's expression softened at this, and the other boy jumped in.

"That's OK, we aren't going to kill you. If you want to, you can come with us."

Durok smiled a little sadly.

"As I now have no other place to go, that would be most appreciated."

Suddenly, there was the sound of shouting in the woods, and all of them jumped and looked in the direction of the approaching soldiers.

"And, if you wouldn't mind, I think I'll take advantage of your hospitality right now!"

With that, he started to run towards Appa. The rest followed him. But no matter how fast they were, they weren't fast enough to outrun the soldiers. As they jumped up on Appa (the boy with the tattoos yelling, "Appa, yip yip!"), the girl made some rather fluidic movements, sending streams of water towards the oncoming soldiers. The Water Tribe boy threw his boomerang, and the boy with the tattoos seemed to be using a combination of water and air attacks. The significance of this slipped Durok's mind as he joined in with his fireblasts. Suddenly, they were airborne. Durok couldn't understand it. How could something as large as this beast, one without wings, be flying? But it was, and they were soon out of range of the enemy fireblasts.

Durok leaned back and sighed. They were safe. For now. Right when he started to wonder who these people were, the Water Tribe girl (and obvious water bender) spoke up.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?"

Durok quickly sat up, and then bowed as best he could while sitting down. He really didn't want to stand up right now.

"I apologize. I am Durok, of the… formerly of the Fire Nation army. I defected when the Commander of this region ordered me to kill this girl." he said, pointing to the now unconscious earth bender.

The boy with the air bender tattoos turned around from flying Appa, and smiled. Somehow, Durok got the feeling that he smiled a lot.

"Hi!" he said cheerfully. "That's Katara," he said, pointing to the water bender girl, "that's her brother Sokka," pointing to the Water Tribe boy, and then said pointing to himself, "and I'm Aang."

Suddenly, all the small hints and inconsistencies were pulled together in Durok's mind, leading him to a conclusion that left him shocked.

"You're…"

"Yep, I'm the Avatar."

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A/n: So, what did you think? I get the strange feeling this has been done before, and if it has and the author who did the original wants to take it down, I will. If you guys want me to take it down, I will. If you want me to continue it, I will. I'm very amiable to suggestions.


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